


Passing Meteor

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-12-08 02:40:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11637240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: While Anne is in Pandoria, a familiar but unexpected face appears.





	Passing Meteor

Anne awoke on day 637 to the same pink sameness around her. Even the screaming Shadow Seekers sounded the same. Avoid this patch here, jump over this furrow in the ground, edge along this narrow ledge, be careful of the ground here because it had a tendency to collapse…

Anne had learned so much about Pandoria’s landscape now that she could map it out if only she had the materials. She could have drawn it on a wall, but there were no writing materials here. The sap of the plants was acidic, and, though blood would make great ink, Anne wasn’t about to bleed for the sake of art. What if she got an infection, or someone found her dipping her fingers in her blood? What would they think? Anne’s brain still worked, at least, and she had a fairly good memory. Years of memorising dressage routines had helped with that.

Something in the distance was different, though. Anne stayed still while Island #17 flew up into the air, keeping a hand on the giant mushroom tree to keep her balance, and then walked over to the edge of the island to peer down. Was that… a horse? Specifically, a chestnut stallion with a spiky white mane and tail. He was looking around as he trotted around, exhibiting more intelligence than most horses.

“Meteor?” Anne called. The horse looked up, his ears pricked at the sound.

“Anne?” she heard, and laughed in relief at the sound of another voice. A real voice, too, not the phantom ones that she sometimes heard. She tried to tell herself that it was just Pandoria playing tricks on her, and not her mind starting to break under the stress and isolation.

“Meteor! Oh, it’s so good to see a familiar face,” said Anne. “And hear a familiar voice. Wait here, I’ll get down.”

It was a little tricky to use the roots as a kind of monkey-bars, but Anne hooked her fingers around the tree roots that dangled down beneath the island and climbed down until she was low enough to jump. Her shoes just barely landed on the edge of the other island, and Anne stumbled and fell on her hands and knees. Meteor trotted over to her and sniffed her.

“Are you okay?” asked Meteor.

“Yes!” Anne cried, tears coming to her eyes at the feeling of Meteor’s hot breath on her face. She got to her feet and hugged his neck, and Meteor snorted in confusion.

“This is very unlike you, Princess Anne,” said Meteor.

“Oh, please, don’t call me that,” said Anne. “I’m not that person anymore, I promise, I just want to get out of this awful place.”

“So do I,” said Meteor. “I tried to take a bite out of this delicious-looking plant, and it spat at me!” Anne gasped.

“Did it hit you?” asked Anne. “The pitcher plant poison is very dangerous. And it’s good that you didn’t eat it, anyway, the sap is acidic.”

“So is stomach acid, and yet it sits in me perfectly,” said Meteor. “That is how that works, is it not? Linda used to tell me everything she learned at school, back when she went to school. She wanted to go to Jorvik University, but…”

“But destiny had other plans,” said Anne. Meteor snorted.

“Yes, it did,” said Meteor. “Destiny had other plans for all of us. So, this is where you are.”

“Yes,” said Anne. “This is where I’ve been for the past… year? Has it been a year?”

“I don’t know,” said Meteor. “I only know that… well, I probably shouldn’t say it. As Linda would say, it is torture to know about the one you love when you cannot help them.”

“Has something happened to Alex?” asked Anne, immediately fearing for her girlfriend. “What did they do to her?”

“They took you away,” said Meteor. He huffed sadly. “She is not handling your absence well. Every day, she throws herself into looking for you. And then she cries herself to sleep at night.”

“Oh no,” Anne whispered, her hands over her mouth. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t tried to defy destiny, if I hadn’t left her, if I hadn’t…” She trailed off, unable to go on. But Meteor flicked his tail and then moved to nudge Anne from behind, away from the island’s edge.

“It is not your fault,” said Meteor. “You did not ask to be taken and then locked away in here. And… where is your horse? Concorde?” Meteor was doing a terrible job at trying to cheer her up, if that was indeed what he was doing. Learning about Alex had felt like a knife in her heart, and now hearing Concorde’s name twisted the knife.

“I don’t know,” said Anne. “If I had him, I could’ve gotten out of here by now. But I can’t even feel him, Meteor, and there was a pain when I was taken, and…”

“We haven’t heard anything either,” said Meteor. “At least, as far as I am aware. But I have not been there in… some time.”

“How did you end up here?” asked Anne, looking up at him.

“There was a bright light,” said Meteor. “Sabine gave me food. Or, wait, I’m getting that the wrong way around. Sabine had to do the stable chores, she said, and she gave me food. And then there was a bright light. But the food tasted good. Oh.”

“She drugged you to send you here?” asked Anne, gobsmacked. “And just when I thought that that girl couldn’t get any more evil.”

“Did she send you here as well?” asked Meteor.

“No,” said Anne, with a wry smile. “It was quite ironic, really. Maybe it was payback. No, it wasn’t Sabine who threw me into Pandoria. It was Jessica. I suppose that it was a fitting revenge after Concorde and I kicked her through the portal.”

“By Aideen,” said Meteor with a snort as he shook his head. “Some people just can’t let go of the past.”

“I know, right?” said Anne. “So now here I am, stuck in here. But maybe you can help me get home.”

“Um. Somehow, I doubt that,” said Meteor.

“Well, you’re a Soul Steed, so we should be able to get through,” said Anne.

“It might not work that way,” said Meteor.

“Well, it’s worth a try,” said Anne. “Come on, this island is fairly stable.” Meteor made an uncertain noise, but he allowed Anne to grab his mane and pull herself onto his back.

“Sorry about having to go bareback,” said Meteor. “Like I said, I was in the stable when… well, you know.”

“It’s fine,” said Anne. “I’ve ridden bareback a few times. After all, you can’t exactly fly a Pegasus with a saddle.”

“Oh, so he does have wings?” asked Meteor. “I thought that it was just in his, you know, aura.”

“Yes, he has them,” said Anne, grinning at the memory. “They are the most majestic things. You have not truly seen the world until you have seen it from the back of a Pegasus.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it,” said Meteor. “Now, er, how do you propose that we do this?”

“Well, I just point you in a direction and think of home,” said Anne. She closed her eyes, and thought. Of Jorvik. Of the wild, sprawling fields filled with lush grass and wildflowers and sheep and cattle. Of the horses in the stables and the paddocks. Of the people. Of the clouds, and the birds, and the trees, and the sky. Of the night sky, with the twinkling stars populating the dark blue blanket. It was best not to think of people, as that could result in dangerous consequences, especially on horseback. Anne had learned that in her downtime while she wasn’t competing, urged on by Alex’s curiosity.

Anne opened her eyes to see the same pink. There was no portal. She had felt nothing. Meteor lowered his head, ears flat.

“I’m sorry,” said Meteor.

“It’s not your fault,” said Anne, unsure how she could even say those words when the disappointment was crushing her. She slid off of Meteor’s back and sat on the ground beside him, wrapping her arms around her knees and resting her chin on them. She closed her eyes, barely feeling the hot tears as they were squeezed out. And then she began sobbing, because she’d been close, SO CLOSE, to getting home. It was a Soul Horse, yes, but… not the right one. Not her one.

Meteor snuffled at her hair, but Anne ignored it. She felt like screaming at the unfairness of it all, but Meteor was beside her, and she didn’t want to alarm or upset him. She also didn’t want to look too bad in front of him. Because old habits died hard, and she wasn’t completely shattered yet. So she just sobbed, curling up on the ground while Meteor tried to comfort her.

Despite the utter disappointment of the failure, Anne got back onto Meteor the next day. She wanted the companionship, and the familiar feeling of a horse underneath her. He had a different build to Concorde, being a jumping horse, but that didn’t matter too much. At least now, Anne had someone to talk to.

“Okay, so, rule number one, don’t eat or drink anything here,” said Anne. “Not that you’ll need to.”

“But don’t you need to do that to survive?” asked Meteor.

“No,” said Anne. “In Pandoria, your body freezes so you don’t need to do anything. It’s one small comfort, I suppose.”

“Hmm. The eating and drinking thing sounds like fairy rules,” said Meteor.

“I know. But the food and water here will kill you,” said Anne. “In the case of the food, it won’t even be by poisoning. It will literally try to kill you.”

“Like the plant that spat at me,” said Meteor. “It hurt.”

“I’d imagine it would,” said Anne. “It spat acid at you, after all. Oh, and the water is acidic, so try not to step in it.”

“Noted,” said Meteor.

They travelled together for a while, Anne chatting to Meteor about anything and everything. She didn’t talk about Alex or Concorde, though. Those topics hurt too much. Meteor didn’t judge her for crying herself to sleep when they stopped to rest. Nor did he judge her for waking up screaming from a nightmare.

“Why do you sleep?” asked Meteor after one such nightmare.

“Because even though I don’t get tired physically, I’m exhausted mentally,” said Anne. “It’s hard not to think about something when it’s all you used to think about.”

“I understand,” said Meteor. “I miss Linda.”

“I bet she misses you too,” said Anne. “If it’s anything like how I feel, missing Concorde, she can probably barely function.”

“But do you think that… if they put me here, maybe they trapped her somewhere too?” asked Meteor.

“They might have,” said Anne. “But she’s definitely not here. I’d know by now if she was.”

“How?” asked Meteor.

“Because I know this area like the back of my hand by now,” said Anne. “I know every island, every Shadow Seeker patch and their paths, every trap watch out for this pit up ahead, by the way. Jump now.”

Meteor sailed over an inconspicuous-looking patch of ground that suddenly fell away into a pit, and he looked back at it with an alarmed whinny.

“Well, that’s handy, at least,” said Meteor. “You can create a map for us if you’re not too traumatised.”

“Sometimes it’s really obvious that you and Linda are Soul Horse and Rider,” said Anne with a laugh. Meteor snorted and continued on.

On day 693, Meteor had an idea.

“Did Alex ever tell you anything about her magic?” asked Meteor as they walked along beneath an overhanging island. They formed a kind of cliff face.

“Little bits, yes,” said Anne, and Meteor felt guilty for bringing her up as Anne tensed.

“I’m sorry, this will be brief,” said Meteor. “But Linda has a theory of sorts. Now, I won’t go into it, but what I am trying to say is that have you ever tried using Alex’s magic?”

“No,” said Anne. “And anyway, it won’t work unless I have my Soul Steed, will it?”

“You will not have to use much magic to do this,” said Meteor. “Just… imagine that you are holding a knife.”

“Okay…” said Anne, sounding unsure.

“Now drag it down and imagine cutting through plastic,” said Meteor. Anne concentrated. She felt something. A tingling forming at her fingertips. And, just for a moment, she thought that she could see tiny blue stars. But then, a wave of fatigue crashed over her.

“What was that?” asked Anne, shaking on Meteor’s back. She dismounted and sat down on the ground, grateful that Island #18 was a relatively stable one.

“I think I know how you might be able to get back home,” said Meteor. Anne panted, still shaking, and looked at her hands. For just a moment, she’d felt something that she hadn’t felt in years. An echo of the magic that had once surged through her veins.

After that, Anne practiced with her magic every day. Usually, she tired after creating small sparks at her fingertips. But once, she managed to pull the imaginary knife down through the imaginary plastic a little. She collapsed, but not before she’d felt a cool night breeze.

On day 712, Anne and Meteor had to run. Anne had spotted Dark Riders in the distance, and they had spotted her. An orange horse and a girl dressed in dark blue stood out in a bright pink landscape.

“No!” Anne cried as she realised that, in her haste, they’d galloped down the wrong cave entrance. This cave was a dead end, there was no way out. And the Dark Riders were right on their tail…

“Quick! Tear open a portal!” Meteor urged. Anne dismounted, tears in her eyes as she looked from her hands to Meteor and back to the pursuing riders.

“I… I can’t!” said Anne. “I’m not strong enough yet, and there’s not enough time.”

“Just try,” said Meteor. “Do it for Alex!”

“No,” Anne whispered. “I’ll do it for Linda.”

And, using what little power she could muster, Anne imagined the knife and felt it heavy in her hand. She struck out, snagging it on the fabric of the worlds (it was thinner here), and pulled downwards with all her might. Orange light filtered in, along with a leaf or two. Meteor looked at it and then back at her.

“Anne, there’s enough room for both of us,” said Meteor. But the riders had already rounded the last corner, and were fast approaching the end of the cave.

“Just go!” Anne cried, and smacked his rump. Meteor whinnied and instinctively leaped through the rift, his white tail vanishing just as Anne’s strength ran out and the rift sealed up. She collapsed to the ground and looked up at the Dark Riders, tears streaming down her face.

“There you are,” said Sabine, Kaahn stepping towards Anne. “We’ve been looking for you for ages, you little escapee.”

“You should’ve put me in a better prison, then,” said Anne. “Like, oh I don’t know, an actual prison?”

“This is prison enough for you,” said Jessica. “You’re trapped here, without your precious little horsey to help you get out this time.”

“But you’re not truly powerless, are you?” said Sabine. “You still managed to tear open a hole for that horse to get through. How did you manage that?”

“I’m not going to tell you,” said Anne. She couldn’t even explain it to herself. That was Lightning magic, it shouldn’t have worked. But it had.

“You’re lucky that we’re here for another reason,” said Jessica. “We’re going to retrieve one of our own. At least we care about our trapped riders.”

“They care about me too,” said Anne. “Meteor will tell them where I am.” Sabine laughed.

“Seriously? Wow, you must be as dumb as the stereotype says,” said Sabine. “Did you really think that we wouldn’t have a failsafe just in case that horse somehow managed to escape? He’s not going to remember anything of your little adventure.” Anne felt numb, and her shock must have showed on her face, because Sabine laughed again.

“Come on, Sabine, let’s go get our sister,” said Jessica, turning her horse around.

“Yeah. Later, Anne,” said Sabine, and smirked as she rode out of the cave with Jessica.

Anne sat there in the dark cave, alone and feeling empty inside. Meteor wouldn’t remember. He wouldn’t be able to tell them where she was. All of that, their talks, him being there, her letting him go free, was it all for nothing?

“No,” Anne said to herself. “You’re being selfish again, Anne, stop it.” And so she thought of how she’d helped Meteor. She’d helped him escape. She’d helped reunite him with Linda, hopefully. Or she’d at least put him in the right spot to find her. She’d prevented the Generals from having easy access to a seal, remembering that they’d tried to sacrifice Tin Can to release Garnok before. She’d made it so that he wasn’t so alone here. And, in doing so, she’d had company for a few weeks, at least.

Those thoughts were the only things that prompted Anne to move out of the tunnel where she knew Shadow Seekers liked to roam. She moved under a tree instead, and closed her eyes. Meteor was gone, yes. But he was free. And she was alone. But she’d helped him. She’d proven that she wasn’t selfish. She’d discovered new powers. Maybe, just maybe, she could use these newfound powers to get out. If she was strong enough.


End file.
